that morning that that attempt to carry the lines failed.  That thin gray line there in the gray dawn set themselves to meet the on-rushing columns and hold them till knowledge of the attack spread and succor arrived.  You may not agree with me that what happened at that time is happening now; but I tell you as one who has stood on the line, that we are not only holding it for ourselves, but for you.  It is the white people of the South that are standing to-day between you and the dread problem that now confronts us.  They are the thin line of Anglo-Saxons who are holding the broken breach with all their might till succor comes.  And I believe the light will come, the day will break and you yourselves stand shoulder to shoulder with us, and then with this united, great American people we can face not only the colored race at the South, but we can face all other races of the world.  That is what I look for and pray for, and there are many millions of people who are doing the same to-night.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am not speaking in any spirit which I think will challenge your serious criticism.  We are ready to do all we can to accord full justice to that people.  I have many, many friends among them.  I know well what we owe to that race in the past.  I am their sincere well-wisher in the present and for the future.  They are more unfortunate than to blame; they have been misdirected, deceived.  Not only the welfare of the white people of the South and the welfare of the white people of the North, but the salvation of the negro himself depends upon the carrying out, in a wise way, the things which I have outlined, very imperfectly, I know.  When that shall be done we will find the African race in America, instead of devoting its energies to the uncomprehended and futile political efforts which have been its curse in the past, devoting them to the better arts of peace, and then from that race will come intellects and intellectual achievements which may challenge and demand the recognition of the world.  Then those intellects will come up and take their places and be accorded their places, not only willingly, but gladly.  This is already the new line along which they are advancing, and their best friends can do them no greater service than to encourage and assist them in it; their worst enemy could do them no greater injury than to deflect them from it.

This is a very imperfect way, I am aware, ladies and gentlemen, of presenting the matter, but I hope you will accept it and believe that I am sincere in it.  Accept my assurance of the great pleasure I have had in coming here this evening.

I remember, when I was a boy, hearing your great fellow-townsman, Mr. Beecher, in a lecture in Richmond, speak of this great city as “The round-house of New York,” in which, he said, the machinery that drove New York and moved the world was cleaned and polished every night.  I am glad to be here, where you have that greatest of American achievements, the American home and the American spirit.  May it always be kept pure and always at only the right fountains have its strength renewed. [Prolonged applause.]